I want to welcome you off.

Let me start off.

My name is Angela Davis Farish, and I proudly serve as the chairperson of the African American Advisory Committee for the beautiful city of New York.

With the members of the triple AC, please stand.

We have Elder Mark McLean, Leslie Adams, Leslie Gaskin, Nate Adams, of course, and Lisa Burton.

And of course, this is a celebratory moment, not only for the city of New Rochelle, but also for the entire country as we are recognizing an amazing holiday of Juneteenth.

At this time, I will turn this portion of the program over to our illustrious MC by the name of Nate Adams.

And he will serve as our masters of ceremony.

And as you all know, Nate is a pillar in this community, making sure, especially that our young black and brown boys have a place, a safe place where they can go and engage.

So Nate, let's give it up for Nate, because he's has done a marvelous job in terms of making sure that our young men are in a safe place.

So Nate, it's all yours.

Thank you, Angela Davis Farish for those kind remarks.

We thank then President Biden in 2021, enacting this as a federal holiday.

But it goes beyond enacting this as a federal holiday.

This has been our story.

This is our song.

This is something that we are continually fighting for as we continue as African Americans in our community, in our state and in our country.

As we're seeing things getting pulled back, sometimes we feel like we're going backwards.

But I know a city like New Rochelle, we will continue to move forward as we uplift and do the work for African Americans in this community.

Some people I think might have gone down to the parade.

I couldn't make the parade, but I got the text message, and he said, Oh man, I forgot you're MC in tonight.

I said, So did I.

So I knew I was gonna be here, but I'm so happy to be able to enjoy, especially recognizing our honoree.

Um what great work has been done um in the city in the last few years under this leadership, and we want to thank her for her continued efforts for the city of New Rochelle.

So I want to bring up now our fantastic mayor, your dear Ramos Herbert, to come up and give some remarks.

It's a pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate this event, but I first want to recognize that some of my elected colleagues who've also taken the time to join us.

Assemblymember Steve Otis is here.

County legislator Terry Clemens is here.

My wonderful colleagues on the city council, Sarah Kay, representing District 5, David Peters, representing District 3, Shane Aushin Lee, representing District 4.

Just scanning the room to see our wait, hold on.

We have okay, wait.

Fela from this the library board.

And our newly elected school board member Carmen Perez.

And Juneteenth for me, it's it's there's so many thoughts and emotions, right?

And I think in so many ways it summarizes the African American experience in this country.

It's a time for celebration, but also a reminder that our freedom, our liberty, our progress is something we're gonna always have to fight for in this country.

And I think in particular under this administration, where we want to pretend history isn't what it is, we want to pretend the lived experiences of black people here is not what it is.

Um it's even more important that we take the time to celebrate Juneteenth.

And I'm so proud of our city and grateful to the African American Advisory Committee and making sure that this event stays on the calendar, that we raise the flag, that we celebrate the raising of the flag, and we celebrate the contributions of African Americans in this country, but certainly we know New Road wouldn't be what it is without the contributions of African Americans here.

Um I look in the audience and it's friends and family, people who I care for so deeply, so I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this than to be in community with each of you.

So thank you for coming out today.

We also like to bring up right now our city manager, uh Wilfredo Melendez.

Thanks, Nate.

Thank you.

Uh thanks to the Triple AC uh for the work they do.

It's great to collaborate with that group on a regular basis.

Uh it's a lot of good work that comes out of that, and that's really um really a testament to their dedication to this city and to that passion they have to the to the community.

Um thanks to the staff who puts this together every year.

It's always a lot of work and a lot of little things that have to get done, and thank you for that work.

Um, thanks to the mayor, council for your support and the electors that show up here to support these things, these events.

So thanks for joining us today for this recognition of Juneteenth.

Um, as our nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, this year's Juneteenth celebration takes on a real special significance.

Uh many of our celebrations of America's story are focused on looking back at our collective past.

And while Juneteenth will always be connected to that final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, it also serves as an opportunity for us to look ahead.

So think for a second about the first observance of what was called Jubilee Day on June 19th, 1986.

So formerly enslaved people celebrating their freedom while also educating fellow freed men on how to vote and participate in the political process.

These people who experienced some of the darkest days of our history, we're still able to look forward to better days.

And thinking back just five short years ago when Juneteenth was designated a federal holiday, gave many Americans reeling from the events of 2020 a chance to celebrate our collective progress and look ahead.

So that's the focus.

The theme is looking ahead to a brighter tomorrow.

So I hope we spend this Juneteenth thinking of the steps that led us to where we are today and working towards a future that we could all be proud of.

So thank you.

Thank you, Alfredo.

Um, and I do want to call up who's been very influential and a partner in this work with the African American Advisory Committee.

Um, don't want to call him out randomly, but uh District 3 David Peters, just a few remarks, please, David.

No, you good.

You good?

He said he's good, he's good.

Okay.

Wait, you you're lost for words right now, Dave?

Capture this in history, uh, captives in history.

So um today we also have the privilege of recognizing one of our dynamic community members.

Uh before I read her bio, I want to um personally thank her.

Um, a member of our community.

They call her OT, but she works overtime for our community.

If you want to know the truth, OT is gonna tell you the truth.

Yes, yes.

If you want to know, and she's speaking from a sense of one presence to be present at every meeting, to be able to give you information that's important for us to understand as a part of our community.

But she also takes her time to be a part of the My Brothers Keeper Advisory Committee.

And when anyone lifts the importance of literacy in our community, it says a lot about the character of that individual.

Because as I work in the school district, we have many of our students that are graduating way beyond or way below their grade level.

Without the ability to read and to articulate and to perform in today's society.

It's not about what we do in high school, it's about the work you served also in elementary school.

So I find it without robbery that we honor Miss Otelia Tanner, who's an Afro-Latina independent bookseller living here in New Rochelle.

Otilia is the owner and operator of the humble bubble book LLC, which was established in 2019.

Otilia, originally born and raised in East Harlem, New York, has spent the last 31 years as a proud homeowner here in New Rochelle, New York.

Otelia is a passionate advocate for the community, a different differentially able children, and believes each child has a story to tell and a journey to share.

Otelia serves her community in a multitude of ways as a community activist and volunteer.

One of her best love contributions was as the Daniel Webster Elementary School's Fund with Food and Fairy Tale Food PTA After School Cooking Class, creator and instructor.

Otilia carefully created recipes based upon her favorite global fairy tales.

Otelia co-founded the newly chartered Lincoln attended zone PTSA in New Rochelle, New York, and is a longtime PTA council member, representing several school communities.

Otilia is a retired educator, member of the New York State United Teachers Union, where she proudly serves as a sticks and stones trainer.

Otilia is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in ACP and currently serves as chairperson for the NWACP New Rochelle's branch civic engagement committee.

Otelia has raised a family of avid readers and believes the best way to gain access to the world beyond your bookyard backyard is a good book.

The Humble Bumble Book is a New York State certified MWBE Limited Liability Corporation and takes pleasure in sharing reading materials, promoting the images and voices of marginalized people and communities of color.

We have a superstar in our house tonight, y'all.

So it was without further ado that I recognize for our Juneteenth recognition of 2026, our honoree, Miss Otilia Taylor Tanner.

Please come up, please come up.

Okay.

You know, you know we love proclamations.

You know we're gonna we're gonna recognize you.

We have our office, uh office from the mayor of the city of New Ishell, a proclamation honoring Otilia Tanner.

Whereas during the New Rochelle's Juneteenth celebration, we honor the achievements, resilience, and contributions of African Americans and recognized individuals whose leadership service and commitment to uplifting historically underrepresented communities reflect the values of freedom, opportunity, empowerment, and progress.

And whereas Ottilia Tanner, Taylor Tanner, as Afro-Latina independent bookseller and longtime New Rochelle resident, has dedicated her life to promoting literacy, educational equity, civic engagement, and sharing of diverse voices and experiences.

Whereas, as the owner and operator of the Humble Bubble Book LLC established in 2019, Otilia has champered diverse voices and stories while encouraging readers of all ages to discover the power of literacy.

Whereas, through her professional and volunteer efforts, Ottilia has worked tirelessly to foster understanding, strengthen community connections, and ensure that all voices are represented and celebrated.

Now, therefore, Madam Mayor, your dear Ramos Herbert, mayor of the city of New Rochelle, do hereby honor Otilia Taylor Tanner for her outstanding contributions to literacy, education, civic engagement, and community service, and for her unwavering commitment to empowering others and enriching the city of New Rochelle.

Done at New Rochelle, New York this day, the 18th day of June 2026, signed by our mayor, your dear Ramos Herbert.

Oh wow.

And so this will be recognized as a celebration for Juneteenth as it will be elevated on the wall, as the mayor has just mentioned to us.

And we thank you once again for all that you do, all that you are, all as you will become, all that you will be remembered for, because your legacy will live on in this community.

So we thank you, OT.

Thank you.

So thank you, family, thank you, community, thank you, Triple AC.

Thank you, my friend, Mayor.

Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you.

Mr.

Wilfredo.

Um, thank you.

I can't name everyone, but I was dreading this day because I don't like this type of attention.

So this is my story, and this will be my song.

So I just want to make sure to thank my daughter.

So my partner in crime, who, you know, I drive her crazy.

I don't think she likes working with me, but that's okay.

So that's fine.

But this is important.

This has been a passion when I reflect when I had to make a bio.

I thought about it, and I said, Wow, even growing up on 110th Street, I found solace in the library.

I knew where all the libraries were.

And I still kind of know, like, oh wow, we read the Schomburg.

That's the original library for the Schomburg.

How beautiful, how wonderful.

What I learned in apartment 15E on 110th Street, overlooking the Metro North, wondering where I wonder where those people are going.

And there were hardly any women, but there were a lot of men reading big newspapers.

I just the nuns instilled in us that have a love for reading.

But I wanted to know, I thought wherever they're going, there are trees.

So when I think about the children, when I think about the children who may not have, oh, thank you, Nate.

Who may not have that opportunity?

It bothers me.

It bothers me.

So some of our favorite children readers, like Fella's son there, he's one of our customers and one of our supporters, and we support him.

He's a Webster kid, he's an avid reader.

But when I think about how you can you can have a passport, I didn't even know what a passport was, but I knew what a book was.

And I knew that I could travel, and I think every child deserves to have that because you can explore beyond your backyard with that.

So thank you for for today.

I appreciate it.

You're so good.

You're so good.

Oh, yes.

We have a photographer, okay.

Okay, there you go.

There you go.

Lisa, I'm right.

Just making sure.

Um, Tommy's in the middle.

Sorry.

Oh, I hear.

Okay.

Okay.

Congratulations again, OT.

Uh, before we get into our history, um, another one of our public servants um who's been fighting for us and working for us locally and now on a national level.

Uh, Congressman George Latimer has entered the building.

Great to see you.

Thank you for being here with us, always uh a proponent of newest show and a supporter of our community.

Right now we're going to um pivot to our history of Juneteenth that will be provided to us from our co-chair for America 250 Newest Show, Miss Lisa Burton.

Hi, so so we've heard a lot from a number of people about the history of Juneteenth.

And so I'm I'm just trying to, I want to first have a moment of silence for um all of the people who died during the civil war, all the people who died trying to be self-emancipating during that time period, for all the people who never saw Jubilee, never saw emancipation for all of the people who never got um some social and and psychological help once they were free but had nowhere, nothing, literally nothing, and a moment of silence for all of us who still have the echoes of that trauma in our lives.

So just a moment.

I think it's always important to remember that there is grief and trauma involved in our history.

Um there's beautiful things and joyous things, and and but there's there's grief and there's trauma, and and when we don't recognize it, um we're always surprised by the pushback.

We're always surprised by the violence.

We're always surprised by the efforts to take back what we thought we had earned and fought for and deserved.

So on January 1st, 1863 is when Abraham Lincoln issued the the emancipation proclamation, the final form, declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate states of America in rebellion were free.

If you were enslaved and you were part of the Union, that had not been worked out yet.

That same year, there were race riots in New York before the draft riots, July 11th through the 17th of 1863, where they say 150 some odd people were killed, but thousands went missing during these riots, where uh black orphanage was burned to the ground in New York, in New York.

So we get to the end of the Civil War, and April 9th, 1865, is the you know, Robert Lee surrenders.

Normally in a civil war, someone gets hung, someone gets sent to prison, they got to go home.

But it wasn't until June 2nd that the army of the trans-Mississippi surrendered, and that included the forces that were in Texas.

So on the morning of June 19th, um Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the 2,000 federal troops that were sent there, and he announced that the empathic proclamation was in effect.

And what he did was he put up a sign that said the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free.

This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection therefore to existing between them become the that between employer and hired labor.

The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and to work for wages.

They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness, either there or elsewhere.

So this was printed and posted to people who were illiterate.

And again, the war was over, every gun got to go home, and then they were told to stay where you are and to work for wages.

But you know what?

There was still a Jubilee.

People came out and there was great celebration.

Because even in the midst of what is absolutely um setting a tone that doesn't say, welcome, brothers and sisters, welcome out of your bondage, welcome to being citizens, welcome to being considered human in these United States.

There was still jubilee.

And so when I think of Juneteenth, there's there's two great takeaways.

The first one is that black liberation always comes at the end of a gun.

And the second one is that even when we win, we don't win, unless we persist in proclaiming ourselves people who deserve their rights here, people who deserve to be considered human, people who deserve to have their children living without fear, people who deserve to have the protection of the state and not the violence of the state, and people who who will exist long after the United States is gone, because that is our history.

African Americans and Africans writ large are among the oldest people, the oldest people, our DNA is among the oldest in this world.

So we will survive this, but we have to recognize there's a cost to Jubilee.

So not this is a jubilee, you know, this is a celebration, but we have we have to.

Um that some people will never let us be free.

Thank you.

And to piggyback off of what Lisa said, we lost one of our leaders this year in our country in our fight for civil rights in the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

And Jesse Jackson used to visit Shiloh Baptist Church many of the years ago when Reverend Calvin G.

Sampson was there with Rainbow Push.

And he talked about I am somebody.

And as an affirmation that I always tell my students, and what we need to continue to tell ourselves as African Americans, we are somebody.

Our guy.

So please, if you care to help, we have Rodney's place starting for our middle school students with our youth bureau and Kelly Johnson.

We're out there working, but we need the help and the support of our community.

It takes a village to raise a child.

And right now, our village needs to become a village again.

So without further ado, I also want to recognize a couple individuals.

One is gonna come up and close us out tonight.

But Leslie Gaskin, please stand up.

Please stand.

Elder Mark McClain, please stand.

As as we come through this period where we will be transitioning, I want to say personally, I've learned.

Because you two were examples of what black excellence looks like in the city.

You're always on the front line for our community.

And as your tenure as members of our African American committee uh concludes within the next couple of weeks, I just want to say on behalf of every member of the African American committee, we thank you.

We thank you for being at that table every single day.

If Leslie couldn't make it, her face in the Afro was right there on that Zoom every single Wednesday.

And so we love you.

As we continue to move forward from our committees, we know your commitment doesn't change.

So we thank you for all that you contribute these last years, five years.

No, seven, six, six.

These last six years as members of this African American committee, and we thank you for your commitment to the city of New Rochelle.

Please give these two members a round of applause, y'all.

And so as we close up, um it's only befitting.

Um we also have State Senator Shelley Mayor.

Shelley Shelley Mayor's in the house.

Great to see you, Shelley.

As usual.

Um and and that's what New Rochelle is, right?

A lot of communities don't get the privilege to have a George Latimore or Shelly Mayor show up at all of the functions that we have, because we just finished about 15 functions in New Rochelle, and they would add at least 13 or 14 of them.

And so we thank you for your commitment to New Rochelle.

Um the Queen City that's continually rising.

And I thank the leadership again of our city.

And without further ado, uh closing remarks by Elder Mark McLean.

Peace and blessings, family.

It's uh been a wonderful um ceremony and celebration, and we should never take for granted the opportunity to come together in fellowship, one towards another.

And we should never take for granted the opportunity to come together in fellowship, one towards another.

And you know, this is my last official act as a vice chair of this African American advisory committee.

And I can remember advocating for its creation.

And you know, calling and talking to the mayor, you know, many times.

And I want to thank our president mayor because I talked to her and she said yes.

You know, and uh it's been it's been a good time to be able to be at the table.

You know, I was born and raised here.

I grew up in the hollow, and I remember many years of not having access, not being able to have your voice heard.

And so I want to thank God for you know the maturing of our city, you know, where you know we can come together, celebrate Juneteenth, and at any time, you know, make a call and be heard as African Americans, the newest show.

And so as we conclude this Juneteenth celebration, let us remember that Juneteenth is more than a commemoration of freedom gained, but it is also a call to continue the work of justice, unity, and opportunity for all people.

This evening we have honored the resilience, faith, and contributions of African Americans whose sacrifices have helped shape our nation and indeed our community.

May we leave here inspired to build bridges across differences, stand against injustice, and work together for a brighter future.

On behalf of the African American Advisory Committee, I would like to thank our elected officials, community leaders, volunteers, and all who join us this evening.

May the spirit of freedom, hope, and love of family celebrated on Juneteenth, continue to guide us throughout this year, and may God bless you for when he blesses you.

So I believe we have food and collation in the back, as they say in church, collation.

So we have some food, please enjoy this fellowship.

Um please, tomorrow, uh Glenn Island, great celebration, uh Juneteenth celebration.

So please come out all day and let's celebrate and continue this weekend.

And Saturday.

Ruby D.

Park Gospel Fest on Saturday.

That's right, that's right.

Okay.

And can we please have all of our city officials, uh county officials, everyone to come up as we have a photo op with Otilia, our honoree.

Thank you all again and have a blessed night.